Controlled Reentry
by DrawMeASheep
Summary: Somewhat cracky, but not approaching blimp levels. Tony bumps into Ziva while on a secret mission, in space! But not outer space.


Disclaimer: Good morning, Krusty Krew!

Spoilers: Vaguely through _Inside Man_. Like…you would need to know that someone might be in need of therapy, but only for the set up.

Summary: I wrote a sad fic after this ep, so I thought a less sad fic was in order. In fact, a somewhat silly fic, though not too silly because things are too delicate to be too silly right now. As silly as is appropriate, under the circumstances. You know, if you haven't back buttoned by now, I could just go on. No? Well, Tony bumps into Ziva unexpectedly. While on a silly errand, and being pursued by silliness. But still with some seriousness involved. It's sillious.

* * *

Tony flashed his badge at one of the security guards standing at the doorway when he set off the metal detector and was pointed to the left. A middle-aged woman who needed to consider going a size up on her uniform shirt gave his ID a lazy glance. Without checking to make sure his face matched the picture, she waved him past with the comment, "Don't know where your friend's haunting today."

"My…huh?"

"Badge said NCIS, right?"

He thought about mentioning that if she didn't know, she should be asking to see it again, but assumed that special brand of security guard cynical sarcasm reserved for interaction with real cops. "Uh huh."

"Well, if she's not your friend, she at least works for you. And how many people work there? Twelve?"

"No. More like…" he didn't think now was the best time to start Googling on his phone, so he guessed, "two thousand?"

"Hey, alls I know is she comes in a couple days a week and the one time I talked to her, she said she worked at NCIS. So there you go, enjoy your visit to the Air and Space Museum."

"Yeah, thanks." He glanced around at the exhibits in the main hall that he hadn't come to see. Knowing that there was someone in the building who could recognize him made it that much more important to make this fast. Odds were that no one would spot him in a building this large, but… His upward glance at the planes suspended from the glass ceiling was interrupted on the second floor balcony. "No way."

"I know!" an excited man in thick glasses and an old black t-shirt with a faded NASA logo said, clapping Tony on the shoulder and causing him to jump. "They totally look like they could fall on you, but don't worry, man. I've been here a bunch of times and it hasn't happened yet."

"Oh. Right."

"Yeah, it's cool. Hey, you wanna go see the rockets and…"

"I'm actually, uh, meeting someone."

The man blinked. "They can come too."

"Well, it's kind of…" He checked the balcony railing to make sure it hadn't been his imagination. "I should really get upstairs."

"Hey, I'm headed that way. I'll go with you." He first blocked the path to the escalator and extended his hand. "My name's Gene."

"Tony." He pulled his hand from Gene's zealous grip and found that the gritty feel had been caused by something resembling cheese doodle crumbs.

"Nice to meet you, Tony!" A group of school kids prevented Tony from sprinting up the escalator and escaping continued conversation. "Yeah, this is a great museum. You always meet interesting people who like the same things you do and who you can really talk to. Like us!"

"Uh, sure." Tony bit his tongue. Kids probably wouldn't understand if he shouted, 'Make a hole!' anyway.

"Now I can tell that you're probably on your lunch break, because you're in a suit, but you still come here instead of going to some crowded sandwich place. That's like me! I mean, if I hadn't lost my job a couple months ago and worked near here. This economy is…"

Tony almost knocked over two stragglers from the school group at the top of the escalator. "Sorry, but I see my friend."

"Oh, good, I can meet him and we can all go over to the space exhibits!"

"Well, uh, she…"

"It's a girl? Tony, are you meeting a date here?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's a…date." He suddenly wondered if he would survive a fall to the floor of the main lobby below.

"That's so cool! Wish I knew a girl who wanted to come here. Okay!" Gene gave him another unwelcome clap on the shoulder. "Is it that one?"

Tony grimaced when he caught a glimpse of a woman who may have been getting fashion tips from the surly security guard downstairs. "No. Look, it was nice meeting you, Gene, but…"

"Oops, say no more. I'll let you say hello and wait over here."

Tony noticed that the air seemed a little fresher as he left Gene and approached the railing. He sidled up to Ziva, blocking her from Gene's view with his body. "Please don't be mad because I didn't follow you here or anything, but there's a crazy guy who wants me to look at rockets with him and I told him you were a date and…" He paused as her arms encircled his waist. "Thank you."

"Hm. He is watching us. You are the third person he has done this to in the past few minutes, although you are the first to go so far even as a handshake." When he raised an eyebrow, she continued, "I saw you when you came in."

"And you didn't immediately run away." He suddenly realized that he should be doing something friendlier with his arms than allowing them to hang limply at his sides, although he somehow doubted Gene would be suspicious. Still, he settled his hands on her upper arms. "That seems like a good sign to me."

"That I didn't move because I underestimated your powers of observation?"

"Hey, you know I like to be underestimated. Means I don't have to put much effort into pulling off surprises. Anyway, it's not like running would do you any good. If I could find you in…" He felt her arms tighten around him, but not in a good way. "I'm just good at finding you, I meant, and the museum isn't _that_ big."

She sighed and moved her hands to his chest. "Your friend appears to be getting anxious."

"I know what you're gonna say, but he seemed so pathetic that I couldn't just…he's like a step below one of McGee's basement geeks plus I was distracted by you and…"

"We will let him down easy, yes?" She took his hand and started to lead him away. "Just wave over your shoulder and keep walking."

Tony tried to throw a sympathetic shrug into the mix as well, but Gene still looked crestfallen. "Poor guy."

"If you are worried he will not find a new friend, you could go back and…"

"No! I mean, I much prefer your company and it's not like I've got a lot of time here because I've gotta get back to…wait a second. What are you doing here?"

She didn't make eye contact, but maintained her hold on his hand. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Yeah, but I asked you first."

"It is on the same bus route as the therapist."

He took an immediate turn into a dark exhibit hall, pulling her with him. "I thought you were seeing the man hands and great eyes at the Navy Yard."

"She referred me to an outside specialist. It did not go well."

"So…what? Now you pretend to go see the doctor and come here instead?"

"I find the National Portrait Gallery tedious."

"You _could_ just stay and have lunch with us."

She tugged her hand out of his, which was strange because he'd been fairly sure she had been the one maintaining a firm grip. "I think it is best this way. Ducky is less concerned, you and McGee can talk freely and Gibbs…I think as far as he is concerned, the more time I am out of his sight, the better."

"He doesn't really feel like that. And even if he does, it doesn't mean anything. I've felt like that since I started working for him, and I'm still there." He took her hand back. "It's gonna get better."

"Why do you do this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't deserve…" The dim lighting in the room had to be playing tricks on him, because her eyes looked unusually shiny – but just for a moment. "Hm. It appears your new friend has an interest in World War I aviation."

Tony led Ziva toward a door on the opposite end of the hall as Gene appeared near the entrance. "Yeah, we might want to think about getting out of here. I've just got to make one stop."

"Yes, you still haven't told me why you were here."

He watched her go from regular height to slightly above eye-level when he stepped onto the down escalator first. "Oh, you'll see."

"Tony…"

"Trust me." Her eyes again took on the odd shine that lasted only a few seconds, so he continued, "Just a quick stop in the gift shop and we'll be good to go."

"What is in the gift shop?"

"Only the single greatest contribution the space program has made to our culture!"

"Kevlar?"

"No, I…did NASA invent Kevlar?"

"No idea. I just think it is useful." She looked around disdainfully as they entered the gift shop. "Please tell me you did not come here to buy a t-shirt."

"No. Come on!" He finally let go of her hand in order to descend the stairs at the back of the store and realized that he hadn't let it go since the last Gene-sighting. Weird.

She made less welcome contact at the bottom of the stairs, seizing him by the back of his suit jacket. "You left work in the middle of the day to come here and buy toys?"

"Of course not! Number one, I'm on my lunch break, and number two…" He made his way over to a display and picked up two silver foil packets. He held them up and gave her his most charming salesman smile. "I came for this!"

She frowned as she read the label, "Astronaut Ice Cream."

"You will never find a more delicious dehydrated food product no matter how hard you try." She was still clearly unimpressed, so he decided to explain, "When I was at Ohio State, I spent this one weekend with this girl's family. We weren't really dating and I think she had the wrong idea because things got really awkward after I met her parents, but…"

"Perhaps you should go find your friend and tell him this story."

He threw an involuntary look toward the stairs, but there was no need to grab Ziva's hand again just yet. "I'm getting to it! They lived near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and there's this big air museum there and her dad took me because, I don't know, male bonding or some crap. Anyway, after a completely awful day of looking at old airplanes and listening to stories about the good old days, he decides to take the last of many bathroom breaks and I walk into the gift shop. I haven't eaten since breakfast, I'm starving and then, like manna from heaven, I discovered space ice cream. I ate six packets that day. I even considered another visit to go get more, but there was this thing at a frat party that…well, there are kids around so I really can't…"

"Good." She was holding one of the packets now, handling it with more force than necessary. "Although I do not understand why you could not go to a store and get it."

"Because you can't just get this at your local supermarket. No, this miracle of modern science is only available at museum gift shops. In fact, the reward of space ice cream has gotten me through more than one unnecessary visit to the Smithsonian. I mean, you can't explain to a woman that, Hey, you live in the DC area, obviously, so why do you want me to take you to a place that makes you talked in hushed voices and doesn't allow snacks? What's wrong with the movies?"

Ziva shook her head. He was going to have to switch out the packet she was holding with a fresh one, because she was turning the contents to powder. "Did you _really_ come here just to buy this astronaut ice cream?"

He grabbed several more packets, knowing that once she tried it, she'd want more. "Oh yeah. Once every couple of months I get a craving. I find it's best not to ignore it." At the register, he took out his Smithsonian membership card with a sheepish grin. "I get ten percent off with it."

Gene had reappeared in the main lobby when they exited the gift shop shortly afterwards. Ziva took his hand again as they stole toward the opposite doors. Tony laughed as they stepped out onto Independence. "I'm glad I bumped into you. I bet Gene would have hogged all the space ice cream."


End file.
